There was an fun old RTS based on this sort of concept called Impossible Creatures, the player creates an army of genetically combined animals.

One model that seemed to work well was the pre-social media internet old people might remember: bulletin boards, forums, blogs.

Ouch.

The video makes an interesting comparison between online and offline communities, but I think it’s missed how common identities that gave offline communities cohesion have also broken down in the modern age. Increasing pressure for jobs and housing, among other things, have forced many societies to become a lot more internally mobile. This has resulted in a much diminished sense of local community because so many people rarely stay in one place long enough to form local bonds.

Supporting the local sports team and attending the local church together once helped us overlook our differences, but those shared experiences are shrinking. That loss of offline cohesion is contributing to the alienation and polarisation alongside the troubles online.

I suppose the confusion is because duplicate Lemmy communities across instances can haver the same name. Perhaps a solution to this would be to more prominently show the instance name alongside the community name.

I imagine we will get situations in the future where multiple same name communities gain traction, but may have different vibes. If it was easier to tell apart c/foobar on InstanceA from c/foobar on InstanceB on each part of the Lemmy interface it would be less confusing.

All many people care about is bread and circuses. Unless their sustenance and distractions are taken away they are complacent.